Because of the inherent inaccuracy in conventional digital timepieces, the displayed time varies from the reference time at the National Bureau of Standards. Present digital clocks and watches contain expensive crystals and other time measuring devices which will maintain the displayed time to within one second of the standard reference time for a period of hours or days. The problem with conventional digital timepieces is that they require periodical resetting. Present methods of resetting are time consuming and inaccurate. Furthermore, each digital timepiece requires individual consideration because of the varied inaccuracies associated with different digital timepieces.
A further problem in commercial time display. In office buildings and factories a power outage requires resetting many clocks and timeclocks. A shift from or to daylight saving time requires resetting all of the timepieces.
Present digital clocks rely upon a counting scheme to drive a digital display indicative of time and the passage of time. These units are disigned for manual resetting, but electronic resetting is cumbersome and expensive, requiring sophisticated interfaces and/or producing an undesirable effect on the display. Furthermore, present digital timepieces lack the capacity for remote updating. Additionally, present digital timepieces are not suitable for multiple simultaneous updating. A further problem is correction of initial inaccurate settings.